This year's Holiday party is really pushed back from the holidays...it's a downright winter party at this point! This year, Mike and Paige Doty have graciously volunteered to open their home in Woodland to us (it's about 4 blocks away from my home in Woodland).

We've foregone a speaker this year...we had one lined up, but then he got invited to go on a trip with the aquarium industry in Brazil. So...we'll spend all that money on goodies for everyone who comes. As usual, the event is for active club participants past and present; generally speaking first timers should check with the host before planning to attend. For location specifics, send MDoty a private message (or he'll post it here if he wants it public!). Here's what we have lined up:

Location - Mike & Paige Doty's home in Woodland, Duluth, MNDate - Saturday, February 7th, 2015Time - 3 PM to "whenever" - basically, until Mike and Paige get sick of us and kick us out!

Festivities include:3rd Annual Chili & Cornbread Cookoff - This is the big one - winners get extra raffle tickets and trophies! Please RSVP if you're bringing a chili and/or cornbread entry. If you're not bringing either, please ask Mike what he'd like you to bring (eg. he might want you to bring some beverages or something)

Trivia Challenge for Raffle Tickets - Our hilarious trivia raffle returns - questions will be pulled from aquarium media such as Reef Builders, Reef2Rainforest.com, CORAL Magazine, and various books. The more you get right, the more tickets you earn for the raffles

Raffles - Our CORAL raffle was so well received we're going to do it again and we're putting all our "speaker funds" into it, so you'll have your choice of getting in on coral frags and/or a secret grand prize. Those of you who contributed corals and other items for our fund raising efforts in 2014, as usual, you'll get your first choice on the coral of your choice.

And remember, you MUST RSVP here for the event. Those who didn't RSVP last year learned that the RSVP made all the difference (in terms of raffle tickets at the door!)

We'll be there...just a little late is all. Again, hoping that 6:30 is not too late to even bother. lol Might have to skip the cookoff but I'd hate missing seeing everyone. Also, I have TONS of little plastic pipettes to give away if anyone needs them. Bought a ton off Amazon a while back and I'll never use all 100. lol Can't wait to see everyone again.

I'm in. Mike, I can't wait to see your fish room. I will make chili too. I'm almost bored with my tank lately so this is really good timing for me! I need a boost! I'm not sure yet...might be coming alone. Maybe Tiffany and I could ride share somehow.....

Looks like I'll be able to show up on time at 3 instead of later. My hubby still works till 6 but my mom wanted to go (since I don't drive ;P) so I checked with Mike and he okayed it. Yay!! I'll be bringing chili this time...my first time bringing chili. And I'll bring cornbread again. So excited to be able to go on time and not miss any of it.

Quick question. Does anybody have any extra cool macroalgae they'd like to maybe trade for a few new plastic pipettes that I'll be bringing? I'm looking to add more to my now 4 year old tank that has both corals AND macroalgae. I'm kind of going for a wild/natural look in that tank since that's the direction it decided to take. So why fight it? I decided instead to just have fun with it. I also have tons of little collonista snails I could bring to trade for decorative macro.